Our Mission Trip To Mexico.....

Brent and I were blessed with the opportunity to go with a group from our church on a mission trip to Jaurez, Mexico to build a house with Casas por Christo. Our kiddos stayed with my mom and dad for 8 days...a long time, and we had a blast ministering together in Mexico for 8 days. Here are some pictures from our trip...enjoy!

The next chapter.....

Master's Degree Update: I (Courtney) just began student teaching yesterday here in town and I will be doing that for 14 weeks, right up until the beginning of May. I'm so excited that I am going to be learning the practicality of teaching not just the knowledge and that I will be finishing my degree and will be entering the next chapter---life without college :) I was talking with Brent the other day and realized that I haven't been out of school at all (except summer break) since I was 5 years old, starting kindergarten. That means that I have been in school for 20 consecutive years!!!! Oh my goodness :) I love school, thank goodness, and will probably begin working on my administrative endorsement soon after completing my master's in May. Brent jokes often about when I am going to start my doctorate. We'll see about that! I would appreciate your prayers as I begin this chapter in my life and want so badly to do well and find a position teaching in the Fall. I know God has all these details figured out for me :)

We are alive...sorry for my blogging absence :)

Well, to say the least, I have been busy with life and not busy with blogging it. Bummer! I'm sorry for the delay in posting. To save you lots of reading, I'm just going to post from Christmas and then start from there...ha!!

We had an awesome Christmas! Claire was very into Santa this year, even wanting to leave out cookies and milk for him. She slept well and was so excited to see her gifts under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Claire also more fully understood Jesus being born on Christmas. She wanted to hear every story we had about the real meaning of Christmas at our house. Every night before bed she wanted to be read a story about Jesus' birth and then after being read all of them several times was able to "read" the stories to us. Claire made us reawaken the excitement of Jesus' birthday within us! Our family made a birthday cake for Jesus again this year, and Blake enjoyed eating it :) We went to our annual Christmas Eve service at church and this year Claire held the candle at the end, and sang Silent Night with us. It's awesome to see how much she is really grasping, she reminds me often that she loves Jesus with her whole heart for her whole life. How sweet.....

Here are some pictures from our Christmas festivities, enjoy!!